Activities Likely NOT to Be Defined as Research

• Public opinion polling
• Interviews regarding facts about a specific event
• Narrative, autobiographical accounts of experience in a particular context, such as living through a natural disaster
• Evaluating whether a published educational curriculum used in a school setting improves student performance
• University students learning to use a psychological test instrument
• University students repeating a well established, low-risk laboratory procedure for educational purposes
• Using publicly available information on health outcomes (which does not contain individually identifiable information) to examine effectiveness of a treatment approach

The activities listed above should not be deemed to be “not research” simply because they are included on this list. This list is a small subset of examples of activities that are “not likely” to be defined as research for IRB purposes. 

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